Gleanings of the Week Ending March 6, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

America’s First National Wildlife Refuge – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge….I’m including it in our plans for the next time we go to Florida; it’s about 1.5 hours to the south of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge which is always one of the places we visit in Florida.

Highly functional membrane developed for producing freshwater from seawater: A desalination membrane laminated with nanosheets featuring 2D nanochannels -- ScienceDaily – Still in the research stage. Maybe this is one of the technologies that will enable low-energy desalination - something we will need to avoid water shortages in many areas of the world.

A mild way to upcycle plastics used in bottles into fuel and other high-value products -- ScienceDaily and How Paving with Plastic Could Make a Dent in the Global Waste Problem - Yale E360 – Two articles about uses for the plastic waste that is overwhelming the planet right now. There still needs to be significant testing on plastic for paving: will it withstanding heavy traffic…will it shed microplastic particles, etc.

Pompeii's Museum Reopens With Dazzling Display of Archaeological Treasures | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – I enjoyed the article…and the website for the new museum.

A large number of gray whales are starving and dying in the eastern North Pacific -- ScienceDaily – Ongoing research but one explanation being explored in a decline in prey (i.e. amphipods) availability in their Arctic feeding grounds – maybe caused by warming there due to climate change.

For the Birds: Why Designing for Birds is Good for Everyone - News | Planetizen – Fast Company interviewed Tim Beatley about his book; he was one of the speakers at the Birds on the Niagara conference.

Wombats Poop Cubes, and Scientists Finally Got to the Bottom of It | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Over 40,000 contractions as the feces moves down the intestine to shape a very dry cube. Evidently the cube shape is an indicator of wombat health!

Water Warning: The Looming Threat of the World’s Aging Dams - Yale E360 – Lots of people live downstream from big dams. Yikes! Decommission of dams is not easy…arguably it could be harder than the building of the dam originally.

Thousands of Wild Bee Species Haven't Been Seen Since 1990 | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Most of the data came from Europe and North America….with some from the rest of the world. All of it sums up to a grim picture when it comes to bees.

Yellowstone's Hotspot Has Been Simmering For About 17 Million Years – An example of how continued data collection and study…can shift our understanding of geologic history even in areas like Yellowstone that have been studied for a long time.

Mini Road Trip: Centennial Park

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On a recent sunny afternoon – I headed out on a mini road trip to Centennial Park. Others had the same idea; the first parking lot I went to was full; there were plenty of spots at the second lot I checked. There were more people than I expected; most – but no all – were masked. This mini road trip was the trial of wearing a KF94 mask with a second mask on top for me; I’d put the masks on before I left the house. I walked across the street after my pace was halted by a young woman stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to coax her reluctant dog to walk; I took a picture looking up the trunk of a gingko tree; the long buds with a rounded tip look like they’ll have tiny green leaves emerging soon.

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I went back to the sidewalk intending to take it to the main trail around the lake but that seemed like what everyone was doing and I was not keen to walk at the pace of the crowd to keep the distancing between groups. I was more interesting is finding at least one photographic opportunity which I saw almost immediately…under some pine trees near where I parked: pine cones in the grass and needles!

I found one that I photographed with my normal settings…then with special filters: art bold and water painting.

Before I turned back toward my car I took a picture of an empty picnic table. It was too cool for sitting around….people were out moving about and enjoying the sunshine.

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It was too crowded for me to spend more time at the park. I accomplished my goal for the mini road trip: get used to the mask configuration and re-familiarize myself with driving my car! I’ll be doing more of these short outtings over the next 6 weeks or so as one step toward a new normal I’ll  have post-vaccine.

eBotanical Prints – February 2021

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20 new books for the botanical prints list in January – all from Internet Archive. I started through the magazines of the Arnold Arboretum (Arnoldia) toward the end of January and all 20 of the ‘books’ for February are that magazine…and the browsing continues in March.

These volumes are from the past few decades rather than the past few centuries which is often the case with the eBotanical prints monthly posts. There is one image for each of the 20 new books; click an any sample images below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the February eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2,084 eBooks can be accessed here.

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.3 (2017) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.3 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.4 (2017) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.4 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.4 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.4 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.3 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.3 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.1 (2013) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.1 (2013) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.2 (2013) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.2 (2013) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.3 (2014) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.3 (2014) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.1 (2015) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.1 (2015) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Arnoldia -  v.73:no.2 (2015) * Arnoldia -  v.73:no.2 (2015) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.1 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.1 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.74:no.2 (2016) * Arnoldia -  v.74:no.2 (2016) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Arnoldia -  v.71:no.4 (2014) * Arnoldia -  v.71:no.4 (2014) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Arnoldia -  v.32 (1972) * Arnoldia -  v.32 (1972) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1972

Arnoldia -  v.34 (1974) * Arnoldia -  v.34 (1974) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1974

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.1 (2002) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.1 (2002) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2002

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.2 (2003) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.2 (2003) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Arnoldia -  v.62:no.3 (2003) * Arnoldia -  v.62:no.3 (2003) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2003

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.1 (2004) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.1 (2004) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.2 (2004) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.2 (2004) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Arnoldia -  v.63:no.3 (2005) * Arnoldia -  v.63:no.3 (2005) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Mini Road Trips: Mt Pleasant – February 2021

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I visited Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant twice in February. The first attempt was a beautiful day – one of the warmest in February. It was a little traumatic because when I attempted to leave my house, my car’s battery was low; I decided not to hike – just make the round-trip drive to let the battery changed again.

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I took a picture of the river birch in the rain garden near the parking lot through the windshield.

The next day was colder but I was intent on hiking…seeing the skunk cabbage again about a month from when I’d hiked to see it back in January. The paths were often muddy and sometimes snow covered. I was glad my hiking boots were waterproof!

The approaches to the bridge over the stream near Hodge Podge Lodge were very muddy but I managed to step on and off onto vegetation. There seemed to be more sand than decaying leaves in the stream bed below the gentle ripples.

The area where the skunk cabbage grows is a low spot where a seep creates a muddy spot then forms the beginning of a stream that feeds into the Davis Branch. There are skunk cabbage plants in the muddy part and then along the tiny trickling stream. It takes a little hunting…watching your step to avoid stepping on plants emerging through last summer’s vegetation.

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There seemed to be about the same number of plants as in January. Some appeared to be damaged at the top by the recent very cold days. The plants create some heat chemical and pull themselves deeper in the muck to survive cold days…but the top part of the spathe would probably always be above the muck.

I did manage to zoom in on one plant that had a visible bloom! They look like a golf ball inside the spathe!

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I’ll make at least one more hike to see the skunk cabbage….try to photograph some of the first leaves unfurling.

Zooming - February 2021

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As I selected the images to include in this monthly post, I found more variety than usual. The experimental high key images are quite different than my usual photography – a type of photography I will continue to use in otherwise poor lighting conditions. There was also a lot of snow….in landscapes and as background to the usual birds. I took more pictures of deer in February too. One subject carried over from last month – the skunk cabbage is still blooming at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant and it’s the only picture taken away from home! Enjoy the slideshow.

High Key Photography Experiments

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I watched a webinar about high-key style photography done my Lisa Langell for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival earlier this month….and have been experimenting with the technique since then. The goal is to simplify subjects…and overexpose enough to get a totally white background. I haven’t gotten to the stage of attempting any post-processing; all the images in this post were accomplished in camera! It doesn’t have to be a ‘good light’ day to do this type of photography!

Of course – we had some snow days which are a natural for high key photographic experiments.

The cut flowers were good subjects as well. Most of these were taken in my office with light behind them from a lamp or the window in the afternoon.

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Peacock feathers are also good subjects. I experimented with different exposures and noted the color changes in the images below.

Now the challenge is to recognize opportunities for high key photography – transition a not-so-good day for photography into something quite different!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 20, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 10 things we learned about climate change in 2020 – I’m thinking about this more this week with the extreme cold in Texas…and lack of preparedness of utility companies and state governments. It drives home the overarching message now: doing nothing will cost more than doing something.

Top 25 birds of the week: Seabids! – Birds and water…from around the world.

Size, Shape, and diversity in phytoplankton – The tiny organisms that could be changing in warming, more acidic oceans….do we have enough of a baseline to know if these communities are changing in ways that will impact the food networks of our oceans?

Fairy Shrimp – A video from a vernal pool in Pony Pasture Rapids Park in Richmond, Virginia.

Wintering bird communities track climate change faster than breeding communities in Europe and North America – Weather impacts birds in the short term (my family has commented that they have seen flocks of robins in their neighborhood recently….having not seen them in the past 30 years they’ve lived in the area) but the longer term impacts of climate changes are only observable with large data bases built since the 1980s. This study looked at over 1,200 species of birds!

How to see the red fox in winter – We occasional see red fox in our neighborhood but I haven’t seen any (so far) this winter. Maybe after the snow/sleet is over I’ll take a walk and look for tracks.

Age provides a buffer to pandemic's mental health impact, researchers say -- ScienceDaily – It may not be ‘age’ as much as older people being more able to stay at home and avoid other people (stress reduction through conscientious steps to avoid COVID-19 exposure)….whereas young people are more likely to have to get out and about for work or other obligations. It could be difficult for older people living along…but maybe we have quite a few older people that are not alone in their ‘bubble.’

Sunset Crater's Explosive Past – The youngest of the volcanoes in the 1,800 square mile San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, AZ. It’s a place I visited (and posted about) back in February 2015.

Immune driver of brain aging identified -- ScienceDaily – It seems to be a change in how myeloid cells handle glucose….tending to hoard it rather than using it for energy. I wondered if that is why people with diabetes are at increased risk for cognitive decline.

Magnetic fields detected in Venus Flytraps – A small magnetic field is produced when the trap closes!

Cheshire Cat Moon

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Earlier this week, I glanced out my office window just after 9 PM and saw the Cheshire Cat moon in the treetops. It is the ‘grin without the cat’ of Alice in Wonderland fame. I took a picture, of course. It was a fun way to end the day – a little spice to the routine of shutting down screens and turning off the light…to do some reading before bedtime.

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The routine of my days is like a comfortable base…that increases my notice and appreciation of little things like the moon in the treetops. The mix of mundane and serendipity makes every day a good one!  

Through my Office Window – February 2021 (and Niagara Birding)

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We’ve had a snowy/icy February so far. There are pines and cedars at the edges of our yard that catch the snow. They are easy to photograph from the warmth of my office. Sometimes I intentionally overexpose the pictures to blur the background further…make the most of the dim light.

Our feeder is popular and often has multiple birds visiting. The pictures below show a Junco - Carolina Wren – female Northern Cardinal and Junco – female Northern Cardinal (tail only) and male House Finch.

The female Red-bellied Woodpecker still comes as well – choosing the peanuts from the mix of seeds.

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I also managed some pictures of birds in trees – a Titmouse in the cedar

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And the male Northern Cardinal in the red maple.

We’ve also noticed deer coming through our yard. There are seven in the picture below….two groups coming together.

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I took several more pictures of the same group at various zoom settings. The portrait with just the head and shoulders shows how thick the winter coat is on the animals.

Over the past weekend, we watched the virtual Birds on the Niagara. All the videos are freely available online now: Feb. 12-13 videos and Feb. 14 videos.

I enjoyed all of them but by favorites were:

J. Drew Lanham (keynote)

Timothe Beatley on Biophilic Cities

Paloma Plant on preventing bird collisions with buildings

Anne McCooey on project to certify the City of Buffalo as NWF Habitat Communities

My husband and I talked about whether we would make the trek to the area in winter sometime post-pandemic….decided we’d go in spring or fall instead – try to see it during migration. Seeing it virtually in winter was good enough for us!

February Sunset

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Sometimes the end of the daylight is spectacular…..and I celebrate when I look out the window at just the right time. The pictures in this post were taken back on February 5th. It seems like we’ve been cloudy/snowy since then!

Both pictures were taken through my office window.

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The sycamore is on the left of this picture. The branches pointing downwards are a broken branch that has been in the tree for most of this pandemic year – firmly wedged. I like the network of silhouetted branches with the billowing orange and pink and blue of the sunset.

Looking a little more to my right – the sycamore is out of the way (almost…there are a couple of branches in the upper left of the picture below) and the tulip poplars that are further away are on the horizon. I liked the upper levels puffs of pink in the darkening blue.

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Somehow sunrise and sunset are both special times of the day…they frame the day in beautiful beginning and ending. Clouds can block the color or I can miss the time…but there is always the potential. These moments of day fill me with appreciation of the Earth – our place in the universe.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 13, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Self-controlled children tend to be healthier middle-aged adults -- ScienceDaily – Benefits include younger brains and bodies, better outlook in the years ahead. This finding is from a study done in New Zealand with 1,000 people tracked from age 3 to 45 (i.e. they were born in 1972 and 1973). Hopefully they will continue to be tracked as they get older….to determine if they remain healthier as they age. The finding makes sense to me based on my observations of my own life and people I have known over many years.

An Invasive Wild Edible Winter Rose – Natural History Society of Maryland – Multiflora rose…it’s a plant that takes over – climbing over everything around it…and it is prickly. One redeeming quality might be the RoseHips that can be used to make tea. Birds eat them too and that propagates the plant – so maybe more harvesting by humans would reduce this invasive!

College campuses are COVID-19 superspreaders, new study suggests -- ScienceDaily – My daughter and son-in-law are very aware that this could happen at the university where they teach and have research teams. They are offering blended classes so that students can be in person or virtual…and providing higher quality masks for their themselves and their research teams.

The 'megascale' structures that humans could one day build - BBC Future – Some history and observations…the realization that there are existing ‘megascale’ structures: terracing of parts of Southeast Asia, land reclamation from the sea by the Netherlands, the internet, the US Interstate Highway system.

SolarEV City concept: Building the next urban power and mobility systems: Unlocking the potentials of EV batteries with roof-top PVs for urban decarbonization -- ScienceDaily – Calculations done for 9 Japanese urban areas…CO2 emissions in these urban areas could be reduced by 53-95%!

The state of the climate in 2021 - BBC Future – Looking at CO2, record heat, Arctic ice, permafrost, and forests. We need to make progress toward drawdown rather than continuing actions that cause the upward ramp of planetary warming.

Are monarchs in trouble? | Science – In my area of Maryland…the decline has been dramatic.

A Tweak to Immune Cells Reverses Aging in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® - Interesting but so far has not be translated into humans. Evidently a drug to specifically block the EP2 receptor is not easily developed.

Tiny hard drives that are alive — and multiplying : Research Highlights – Experiments with data encoding in the E. coli genome. Evidently the data is protected from degradation in the presence of dirt and other contaminants…but what about changes that would occur over many replications?

Top 25 birds of the week: February 2021 – A grand finale to the gleanings….bird photographs!

American Museum of Natural History in 1953

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The 1953 volume of the Magazine of the American Museum of Natural History is available from Internet Archive (here is the link for whole collection list). I am featuring the volume of magazines published the year I was born this week. There were two items that resonated…that reminded me of other years in my life.

The first was an article about Bandelier National Monument.

I’ve been to the place at least 4 times: Spring 1971, August 1980, September 1981, and March 2005. The first time was for a picnic during a high school trip. In 1980 and 1981 my husband and I camped there. We hiked to the lower falls in 1981….and took our best pictures of the place.

The sideshow below is a mix of pictures from the 1980 and 1981 trips. Based on the pictures, we took longer hikes in 1981. My husband did all the photography. I scanned the slides years later.

In 2005, it was a wet day. It was a bit larger group with my parents, husband and daughter. We only walked around near the visitor center. It is a place to visualize how people lived long ago….and the juxtaposition of more modern history of the world in nearby Los Alamos, the lab at the forefront of creating the first atomic bombs.

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The second item was a picture of horsetails.

I remember reading about the plant in a textbook when I was in college in the mid70s…and then being thrilled to see and recognize a stand growing in Platt National Park when we visited a few months later. I had probably seen them before but overlooked them…didn’t realize that these are remnants of primitive plants that used to be the understory of the giant forests that eventually formed coal deposits. The genus (Equisetaceae) was eaten by dinosaurs!

I like finding publications from meaningful times in my life ….it’s a tangible connection to history. It’s also fun to see places I have seen more recently and to think about how they’ve changed … how they’ve remained the same.

eBotanical Prints – January 2021

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22 new books for the botanical prints list in January – all from Internet Archive. 7 are a continuation from December: the annual publication from the Georgia Botanical Society (Tipularia).  I started through the magazines of the Arnold Arboretum (Arnoldia) toward the end of the month. There are a lot of them still go…fodder for the browsing in February and maybe beyond.

The dates for the publications range from 1822 to 2018…close to 200 years but not as broad as some recent months. There is one image for each of the 22 new books; click an any sample images below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the January eBotanical Prints! The whole list of 2063 eBooks can be accessed here.

Tipularia - 1993 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1993

Tipularia - 1992 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1992

Tipularia - 1991 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1991

Tipularia - 1990 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1990

Tipularia - 1989 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1989

Tipularia - 1988 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1988

Tipularia - 1987 * Georgia Botanical Society * sample image * 1987

The fern portfolio. All the species of British ferns are included in this volume * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1885

Our woodland trees * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1878

Autumnal leaves * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1885

Garden Rockery: How to make, plant, and manage it * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1908

The Fern World * Heath, Francis George * sample image * 1877

Monographie des prêles * Kornfeld, Albert (editor) * sample image * 1822

Phillipine Hoya species: a monograph * Kloppenburg, Dale * sample image * 1991

Flora and ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains * Southern California Botanists * sample image * 2007

Arnoldia -  v.48:no.1-4 (1988) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 1988

Arnoldia -  v.76:no.1 (2018) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2018

Arnoldia -  v.76:no.2 (2018) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2018

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.1 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.2 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.3 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

Arnoldia -  v.75:no.4 (2017) * Arnold Arboretum * sample image * 2017

3 Days of Snow

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Today our forecast is mostly cloudy…after three days of cloudy skies and snow. The streets are already clear, and the driveway has some clear patches without us ever shoveling. We enjoyed our snow days but are glad to see a bit more sun!

On the first day we had a lot of webinars from the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife which we were watching on the biggest screen in the house (the television) and had a fire going in the fireplace. We had a power failure a little before 8 AM for a few seconds and the cable/internet was out for about an hour afterward. It’s a good thing the first festival session of the day was recorded so we could watch it later!

I tried some snowflake photography twice during the day. I used my phone with a clip-on lens that included a light and a red glass plate to catch the snowflakes. The temperature was about 30 degrees which is on the warm side for good snowflake photography.

The flakes during the first session about 8AM were clumping although there was one that seems to look like a pyramid with a hexagonal base! Even though I had cooled down the plate and lens for over an hour, there was still some melting.

During the second session shortly after noon, it was easier to see individual snowflakes, but they were heavily encrusted with tiny ice spheres.

I tried to capture some scenes from our back and front yard over the course of the day. Our deck and bird feeder still drew the birds even while it was snowing.

I made snow ice cream in the afternoon – after enough snow had accumulated. We ate the whole big bowl!

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Overnight there was freezing rain so there was an icy crust on everything the second day.

I cracked the ice of the top of the snow on the deck and made snow ice cream again. It was too icy, but we ate most of it anyway.

It snowed more overnight than we though it would so the third day had snow on top of ice. I worried that it might be too heavy for some of the trees because there was some wind as well….but we didn’t hear or see any breakage.  I took pictures of scenes through several windows.

Two of my favorite pictures of the day were taken through the windows on the side of the front door. The vertical ice and snow covered thread in the azalea is an old spider web that’s been there since last fall! The seed pod with a hat of ice and snow is a black-eyed Susan from last summer.

Our plum tree was so full of snow that it obscured the evergreens across the street. The view through the skylights was different too; one had patches of ice partially obscuring the branches of the sycamore in the background.

As always – the view from my office window was the best in the house.

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Ten Little Celebrations – January 2021

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And 2021 is off to a roaring start. Even with the jarring events of Jan. 6 and the pandemic still raging, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate in January 2021.

Bluebirds at our bird feeder –I celebrate when a bluebird group comes to our deck since it doesn’t happen very often. They seem to show up most frequently when there is snow and ice!

Piliated woodpecker in our forest – They don’t come to our deck…but are in our forest. I see them a few times each the winter when the leaves aren’t in the way. Their red heads are like flames. I think I saw a bald eagle a few times too this January. Even the fleeting sight of these birds is a celebration.

Amanda Gordan and the transition to a new President – A young poet and a shift toward hope for our troubled country toward a ‘forming a more perfect union’

Tennessee Crane Festival (virtual) – Lots of good webinars….dreaming about going to the place in January 2022. Celebrating learning about the place this year…and anticipating a visit.

Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival (virtual) – We went in 2019…hope to go to Florida again in January 2022. Celebrating the virtual version this year.

Success making a cheese omelet – I tend to make scrambled eggs but have omelet pans to cook them.  This month I opted to try making an omelet – perfect on the first try…celebrated the accomplishment (and the meal)!

Steak lunch – Our January days have been pretty cold, but my husband grilled on one of the warmer sunny days. A special lunch.

Carrot – coconut – chicken salad – I’ve discovered that if I layer a spoonful of orange marmalade, carrots, canned chicken, and coconut in a bowl….microwave it for a minute…stir…it makes a warm version of a favorite salad to enjoy in winter. Celebrating warm salads!

Howard County Sustainability Legislative Breakfast – Getting an update of what is happening locally re sustainability. I celebrated that good things are being worked at both the county and state level!

Tree trunk macros – It was a short project that I enjoyed a lot. The color and texture of winter tree trunks in our yard were celebration worthy!

Through my Office Window – January 2021

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I seemed to be busy with other things during January…so I was a little surprised that there were enough pictures to make a ‘through my office window’ post this month. This time of year, the heated bird bath is popular with many birds. I managed to get pictures of blue jays, Carolina chickadees, and a mourning dove there.

 Both the male and female northern cardinals are coming to the deck and feeder. The male prefers the seed under the feeder, but the female takes her time there…stays on the feeder perch of minutes rather than seconds.

The gold finches come to the feeder in small flocks. There are often 2 or 3 of them at a time.

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The white breasted nuthatch comes to the feeder but has started checking around the shingles of the covered part of the deck. I wonder if the bird stores seed there or there is something else the bird is looking for there.

I photographed the red-bellied woodpecker at the feeder but also in the maple tree. There is one in this series where the bird is getting ready to take off from the maple to make a run at the feeder. We only have a female around right now. I hope a male shows up by the spring.

Deer come through our yard frequently. Their route is always on the south side of our house – either heading to or coming from the forest. Sometimes they seem to be looking right at the camera. I saw two males butting heads at dusk, but the light was too poor to get a picture.

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There is a small flock of house finches in our area. They enjoyed nibbling the red maple buds on a warm afternoon, but they are often at the feeder this time of year as well.

My favorite pictures this month were of a group of crows finding tasty things in the back yard. They were digging down into the leaf mulch and grass; note that one of them has dirt on his beak! Also – one has white feather.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant for Skunk Cabbage

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I am realizing that I haven’t driven very much in the last 6 months. There are at least 2 problems with that: the almost full tank of gas is about 6 months old and I’m getting out of practice when it comes to driving. If my plan is to make some road trips after I get vaccinated and the pandemic begins to fade, I need to keep my car operationally sound and my skills honed. My solution for now is to start making some mini road trips. The first was to Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant to see if the skunk cabbage was blooming yet.

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There were cars in the parking area when I got there…but no people around. I put on my masks and gloves and set out toward the Community Garden…turning into the path through the forest

Toward Hodge Podge Lodge. It’s gotten some fresh paint on the trim and curtains on the inside.

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I crossed the bridge to continue toward the largest stand of skunk cabbage in previous years – taking a picture of the small stream below with some ferns on the banks. The water made pleasant trickling sounds. I noticed some areas of lighter sediment through the water– cleared of the darker colored debris.

I always look for shelf fungus. The two prettiest I found had green markings. Is that the fungus or a partner organism?

As I walked along the path, I checked the stream periodically and soon found some cones of sprouting skunk cabbage.

Once I got closer to the marshy area, there were a lot more plants. The reddish cones will eventually have the flowers inside them (they look like golf balls). I didn’t see any that were that far along. Right now, the plants are growing slowly – speeding up with it is warmer, slowing down and sometimes pulling themselves down into the muck when its cold.

I’ll make another mini road trip to see them again next month.

I hiked back toward the parking lot and made a stop at the witch hazel near the drive to the farmhouse. The flowers haven’t opened yet, but the buds are large. I’ll check them again too since the tree typically blooms in late winter…or very early spring.

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Tree Trunk Macros – Part 2

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A few days ago, I posted some macro images of our sycamore and cherry tree trunks. Today the macro images are of our Thundercloud Plum and Red Oak tree trunks.

The plum tree bark has fissures and a reddish tinge – maybe from the same pigment that makes its leaves red purple in summer. There are small growths of lichen. The tree is not as well colonized as the cherry but seems to have some the same type of lichen.

The red oak is a mini-ecosystem complete with the lichen (some with a dendritic type of growth) and moss. I appreciate the moss in the winter because it is the greenest thing in our front yard!

The oak also supports some Virginia Creeper vines…with moss and lichen growing under them. The suction cup like attachment to the tree are covered over by the moss.

Overall, this photographic project in our yard has encouraged me to try it someplace else. Maybe I’ll do some tree trunk photography down by the neighborhood pond or into the forest behind our house. Stay tuned.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 23, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Ice sheet uncertainties could mean sea level will rise more than predicted -- ScienceDaily – There are warning signs that the current models aren’t accurately predicting ice sheet dynamics.

How mail-order frogs could save Colombia's amphibians - BBC Future – Carefully breeding frogs to keep them from going extinct in the wild.

Meet Amanda Gorman, the U.S.' Youngest Inaugural Poet | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Leading with eloquence and hope for the future….pushing us to strive for a country that is a ‘more perfect union.’

House Agrees Saguaro National Park Should Grow By 1,200 Acres – Hope this happens…when my daughter was in Tucson we enjoyed this park many times.

Diet and lifestyle guidelines can greatly reduce gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms -- ScienceDaily – Exercise seems to be important – perhaps because it helps clear stomach acid that causes heartburn symptoms.

Top 25 birds of the week: Wild birds Photos! - Wild Bird Revolution – Birds – always great to look at in the wild and in photos.

How Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Broke Up a Nazi Spy Ring | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Some history…about how a woman did work she wanted to do…made significant contributions…didn’t get credit or pay that she should have. It happens again and again. We can’t assume that it isn’t still happening just because we have some very visible examples of women with power, recognition, and pay.

Are sleep trackers accurate? Here's what researchers currently know – It’s not always good to track sleep….particularly if it causes anxiety. I am in the group that generally has good sleep, so the tracker data doesn’t cause me anxiety, but it probably doesn’t improve anything either!  I might get a much simpler tracker next time that doesn’t provide sleep metrics.

The Wintertime Wonder of Unusual Ice | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The short video of hair ice forming is interesting.

How Africa's largest city is staying afloat - BBC Future – Lagos, Nigeria. Part of the city is known as the ‘Venice of Africa.’ And there is a ‘Great Wall of Lagos’ to reinforce the coast.  The claim is that Africa’s largest city is leveraging its ingenuity to stay afloat….but whether it succeeds in the coming decades will be the real test.

Tree Trunk Macros – Part 1

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A sunny day in the thirties…I decided to take a quick walk around the yard with my new camera for some landscape pictures and my phone with a 2x magnifying lens with a built in LED light (and clicker) for macro shots. The best images of the morning (before I got too cold) were the macro shots of tree trunks. My gear is simple. I wear both the clicker and the phone with the magnifier around my neck. I can easily hold the phone close to the tree trunk with one hand (often bracing my hand on the tree) and use the clicker to take pictures with the other.

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The sycamore bark is full of texture…fissures old and new. Some parts of the trunk are very smooth, but I am more interested in the cracks and crevices.

I noticed some Virginia Creeper stems on the painted surface of the exterior wall of our basement. They retain some reddish color even in winter. The way they attach to the brick looks like a suction cup!

The cherry tree has lichen and moss growing on it…and a different texture than the sycamore even though there are some occasional curls of bark.

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A larger branch had fallen from the tree and I took a picture of the end of the branch.

I’ll post the macro images of other tree trunks in our yard next week. I’ve also added ‘pick up sticks/branches’ to my list of chores!